Page 382 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

I feel a shift of strange energy again, but this time it’s in front of me. This time it’s coming from King.

King’s entire demeanor changes as he lifts his head, sending me a soft smile. Something that looks strange on his normally cold face.

“Well done, Kiarra, I’m so proud of you,” King speaks, but it’s not his voice, it’s a soft woman’s voice I’ve never heard before. Though the familiarity in her tone would say differently.

I open my mouth to ask what’s going on, but King shakes his head, that soft smile still firmly in place. “I’ll explain everything soon, I—”

King frowns, his eyes widening before he grabs his stomach and disappears.

I glance around the room, but everything has disappeared. Another type of energy settles over me, making me shiver as it slowly seeps into the room.

The dim light shutters before turning off completely, encasing me in the dark.

“Hello?” My voice echoes out around me with nothing but silence to greet me. I reach out in front of me and take a step forward. As soon as I do, the light beams back on, momentarily blinding me.

I blink away the light, trying to see my surroundings, when an icy feeling trails down my back.

Turning around, I come face to face with King. And this time, I know he’s not an imitation.

“Hello,Kiarra.”

CHAPTER 21

KIARRA

“You’re not an illusion.”

King smirks as I take a step back. “We both know that I’m not.”

I eye the room around me, knowing that there’s no way out. That this is created from the depths of my mind and not something easily escaped.

I glance back at King as his smirk grows, sensing my fear. It makes me pause.

Why am I trying to find a way out? This is what I came to the Underworld for… To end this once and for all. The time for running is over.

The tension in my shoulders releases as I stop looking for a way out and focus on King.

“How did you get in here?”

King glances around, a look of disgust on his face. “The very root of your insignificant fears? It wasn’t hard to push my way into the connection created for you. We arelinked, after all.”

An icy shiver crawls down my back at the look he gives me and the little reveal that makes no sense.

“What link?” There was no way I’d ever be connected tohim.

A long shadow slithers up the side of his face, growing sharper and more pointed. His eyes glow an eerie white.

“What are you?”

King ignores me as the shadow-like snakes continue to slither on his skin, moving down his arms. He smirks as one lifts from his hand.

I flinch back just as it whips out, missing me by an inch.

King chuckles, the low sound of it making the hair on my arms stand up.

“I was once weak. Too weak to do anything but follow others and their commands. But now… now I’msomuch more.”

The room around me shifts and changes to a dark prison cell, the walls and floor made from a jagged black rock. The temperature in the room drops, a shiver running down my spine at the energy in this place.

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